How is your organization tackling the scalability challenge?

The new ITCILO distance-learning activity “Designing Open Education” explores theoretical and applied issues associated with new learning models mediated by digital resources via the internet and networking technologies.

Technological progress means that we must be constantly learning. Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, appear to be an ideal alternative to traditional formal education. MOOCs emerged from the open education resources movement and are acknowledged as an effective way of improving access to quality education.

Despite the advantages of MOOCs over traditional forms of education, several challenges have still to be faced, in particular effectiveness validation, feedback and interaction, digital literacy, and educational and digital skills.

Studies show that the level of scalability of an institution is determined in part by the presence of the ten following factors[1]:

interaction,

learning levels,

student class standing,

faculty tenure or continuing status,

completion rates,

cohort versus non-cohort settings,

degree- versus non-degree-seeking programmes,

market type,

tuition costs, and

profitability.

The ITCILO training activity on “Open Online Education” draws on theories of situated and networked learning to provide an overview of the different design and evaluation challenges for open learning contexts. Course activities are designed to build a theoretical foundation, providing instruments for empirical analysis of open education, as well as introducing current developments and research challenges in open education.